Ahead of the Delhi performance, here`s how The Lumineers made indie folk global

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Gurugram will host a sound that has quietly threaded itself into Indian listening culture over the past decade. The Lumineers, an American band that helped shape indie folk into a globally shared emotional vocabulary, will perform in India as part of The Automatic World Tour, supporting their fifth studio album, Automatic.

For Indian audiences, The Lumineers’ music has long existed in intimate spaces: through headphones on long commutes, background playlists during late nights or songs passed between friends as emotional shorthand. 

The band last played in India in 2022, but this Gurugram show marks their biggest standalone concert in the country so far. It reflects how deeply their music has embedded itself into the listening habits of a generation here. Songs like ‘Ho Hey’, ‘Cleopatra’, ‘Ophelia’ and ‘Stubborn Love’ are familiar not as chart hits but as emotional markers tied to personal memories. That kind of connection is precisely how indie folk became more than a genre.

Formed by Wesley Schultz and Jeremiah Fraites, The Lumineers’ 2012 breakout ‘Ho Hey’ was raw and disarmingly simple. By pop standards, it broke every rule. By human standards, it made perfect sense. Its handclaps, chant-along chorus and open-ended lyrics created something communal. It was music that invited participation rather than admiration.

What followed was a steady rise built on trust rather than spectacle. Albums like ‘Cleopatra’ and ‘III’ explored family trauma, addiction, loss and resilience with restraint. The band never overexplained its emotions, leaving listeners space to project their own stories. Live, this approach only deepened. Lumineers shows are famously stripped back, shaped around shared singing and quiet moments as much as big choruses, an intimacy Indian audiences are now preparing to experience.

Indie folk’s global rise mirrors the emotional climate of the past fifteen years. It slowed things down and allowed vulnerability without irony. Acoustic guitars, unpolished vocals and lyrics that sounded like internal monologues became a refuge for listeners navigating uncertainty.

That sensibility found fertile ground in India as streaming platforms reshaped music discovery. Young listeners began looking for songs that spoke more directly to their lives. Artists like Prateek Kuhad, When Chai Met Toast and Anuv Jain captured this shift, writing inward and trusting emotional honesty over polish. Even artists like Parekh & Singh and Peter Cat Recording Co., contributed to a wider ecosystem that valued feeling over form.

The connection between The Lumineers and India’s indie scene is not about direct influence but alignment. Themes of nostalgia, family and belonging resonate across borders. A listener can move from The Lumineers to an Indian indie artist in the same playlist without a shift in emotional temperature.

In a world dominated by viral hooks and algorithm-friendly soundbites, indie folk’s persistence feels quietly defiant. The Lumineers’ upcoming show this weekend is a reminder of how far music can travel without losing its core. 

The Lumineers’ `The Automatic World Tour` in Gurugram, which is produced and promoted by BookMyShow Live, will take February 1, and fans can get their tickets on the platform.

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